" . . British ex-pats think the NHS is just hunky dory, also means nothing."

It means nothing because no one is offering us an NHS - They are offering low-deducitble comprehensive policies and expansion of the employment based system with its many, many faults, and the ability to land safely when falling out of it.

Going back to Mr. Harlow's question (and now going to uncomfortable gross generalizations): I've been thinking that as you move further to the left on that spectrum, you get to the guns and religion / Rush Limbaugh crowd who don't fit all the way into the far right. They'd probably be the next most resistant to compassion arguments. They're still smarting from the insult and the election loss. But they are not composed of unintelligent, uneducated overly-excitable (or heartless) rabble. We might think their instincts caused and causes them to vote against their interests then and now, and that they are too angered to be swayed by compassion for the greater good, but (in caricature at least) these are the people who know the sweat value of a dollar, and who refuse to believe in the value of multi-trillion deficit spending.

We haven't been offered the Holy Grail of civilisation here.

In terms of public support (ignoring the "persuasiveness" of industry lobbyists in Congress), winning this, I think, really means winning the middle. (And the middle, trust me, are almost deaf to the left:right screaming.)